#377 Meeting Basic Psychological Needs Promotes Inherent Growth Tendencies

     "Motivation is having the energy or desire to do an action. The degree to which an individual’s psychological needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness are being met within any performance context will determine if that person is motivated or unmotivated to perform the task(s) at hand. When a performance context facilitates the fulfillment of basic needs, that need fulfillment engenders intrinsic motivation, or autonomous types of extrinsic motivation, toward a task or performance. These self-determined types of motivation, because they involve voluntary & persistent effort toward a task, help to ensure successful outcomes. The successful outcomes lead to renewed need fulfillment, more self-determined motivation, and continued success of outcomes, all of which lead to psychological well-being. If the needs are not met, an individual will not achieve psychological well-being.

     Self-determination theory (SDT) is concerned with human motivation. The theory examines people’s inherent growth tendencies and innate psychological needs, which are posited to be the foundations of self-motivation. Understanding the circumstances that bring about positive motivation is the focal point of the theory. SDT is based on the assumption that humans, with their innate psychological needs, seek challenges in an effort to master their environments. 
     To understand the reasons why people participate in any activity, according to SDT, it is important to distinguish among a variety of types of motivation. The theory proposes that there is a continuum of human self-determination (or choice) regarding the things that we do. Along this linear continuum, various types of motivation can be described. At the far left of the linear continuum is amotivation, which is the lack of an intention to act. At the far right end of the continuum is intrinsic motivation, which refers to doing an activity for the inherent satisfaction of the activity itself. Four types of extrinsic motivation lie between amotivation and intrinsic motivation, which is at the far right side of the continuum.
     The first type of extrinsic motivation is external regulation. This is the least self-determined, or the least autonomous, of the externally regulated behaviors, in which actions are performed to satisfy external demands. The next type of extrinsic motivation is introjected regulation, which involves behaving so as to avoid guilt or to enhance one’s ego. Identified regulation is a self-determined, or autonomous, form of extrinsic motivation in which the person identifies with the personal importance of a behavior. Integrated regulation is the most self-determined form of extrinsic motivation. It operates when behaviors are most congruent with an individual’s values and needs."
       Ballmann JM, Mueller JJ. Using self-determination theory to describe the academic motivation of allied health professional-level college students. J Allied Health 2008; 37(2): 90-6.

     For more details about SDT, search for Ryan RM on: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/

Galatia N   www.dpreview.com

 

#376 Embracing Our One Precious Life

     People commonly mistake meditation practice for self-hypnosis - a way to escape real life by going into a trance & hang out in "a happy place".

     But meditation is the exact opposite of escaping reality. Meditation is a gentle way of waking up, with eyes, mind & heart wide open, and embracing reality every bit of it - joys, sorrows, as well as regular daily aspects - "the full catastrophe". To give our real life a grizzly-bear hug with a thundering 'YES!' from every cell in our body.

     So we should be aware of the "temptation, and inherent danger, of focusing exclusively on the positive aspects of self-development, whilst ignoring the challenges, struggles and losses which were also part of the growth process. Even the field of positive psychology acknowledges that nobody is happy all the time, that subjective well being is a mixture of both positive affect and negative affect and that whilst profound personal growth may occur during adulthood, it is often preceded by adversity or trauma. ... a psychological account which can embrace these contrasting aspects of change could enhance our understanding of the processes of growth." 

       Mercer J. Exploring the processes of self-development encountered by adult returners to higher education: A lifespan psychology perspective. Psychology Teaching Review 2010; 16(1): 24-36.

#375 Self-development, Self-knowledge, Wisdom & Overcoming Self-centeredness

     "Quests for self-realization, self-actualization, maturity, & autonomy, and even the quest for wisdom might initially be motivated by a desire for a stron­ger self, yet it is precisely through the process of self-development & self­ knowledge that people start to realize the illusory nature of the phenomenal self. 

     The self is not a substance, an unchangeable essence, or an "individual," but a construct that is created through social interaction. According to the liberative model of adult development, the self may be thought of as a construct of attachments & aversions, which need to be transcended. Self-transcendence can be achieved through nonattachment, patience, and in particular self-observation and self-knowledge. A person in search of wisdom will eventually come to the realization that what is conven­tionally called the 'self,' the 'I,' or the 'ego' is an illusion that enables one to construct a stable image of oneself. It is the attachment to the self that creates the ego. Through the practice of self-examination, self-reflection, & mindfulness the ego grows quiet, which allows a glimpse into reality beyond the self and consequently results in greater wisdom.

     It should be noted that wise people's selflessness is not equivalent to low self-esteem or low self-confidence. Maslow even maintained that 'the best way to transcend the ego is via having a strong identity'. A dialectical relationship exists between selflessness and self-knowledge insofar that only individuals who know who they are can over­come their self-centeredness."

         Ardelt M. Self-development through selflessness: The paradoxical process of growing wiser. in Wayment HA, Bauer JJ eds. Decade of behavior. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 2008.

     More from Ardelt's chapter: http://www.johnlovas.com/2013/07/wisdom-awareness-self-transcendence.html

 

#374 Unbinding from "Our" Thoughts and Emotions

     Gradually, with ongoing mindfulness practice, we come to see clearly, directly experiencing, that like all other phenomena, thoughts & emotions arise, abide for a while, then cease. We become increasingly stabilized in observing the impermanent, evanescent nature of all phenomena, that are like birds that suddenly appear in the backyard, land, chirp a few times, then fly away. This includes "our" thoughts & emotions - just transient guests to observe in flight - not to be taken seriously, nor to identify with - these are not who or what we are - not 'I', 'me' or 'mine'.
     This gradual shift in perspective is tremendously freeing, a huge weight off our backs.

     "Can you imagine the possibility of having anxiety and not being anxious about it? Or having depression & not being depressed about it? In other words, can you imaging feeling discomfort without trying to get rid of it? The question is, how do we learn to live in this way? There is no easy answer, but the key is to learn how to welcome – with curiosity – whatever our life is in each moment.”            E. Bayda

Tyne   www.dpreview.com

#373 How Free is our Free Will?

     In the introduction to his short book “Free Will” (Free Press, 2012), Sam Harris writes: 
    “The popular conception of free will seems to rest on two assumptions: 1) that each of us could have behaved differently than we did in the past, and 2) that we are the conscious source of most of our thoughts and actions in the present. As we are about to see, however, both of these assumptions are false. 
     But the deeper truth is that free will doesn’t even correspond to any subjective fact about us – and introspection soon proves as hostile to the idea as the laws of physics are. Seeming acts of volition merely arise spontaneously (whether caused, uncaused, or probabilistically inclined, it makes no difference) and cannot be traced to a point of origin in our conscious minds. A moment or two of serious self-scrutiny, and you might observe that you no more decide the next thought you think than the next thought I write.”

     When we devote no more than the odd moment to contemplate who we are, and how we relate to our environment, Harris is correct, we do remain locked into being thoroughly conditioned by our past history, genetics, etc. Conditioning powerfully, predictably programs specific responses to specific stimuli. Our default mode is indeed primitive conditioned reactivity - we live much (ALL according to Harris) of our lives on autopilot. Sadly, most of us behave based on the complex cocktail of causes & conditions of our past - our future 'set in stone' by our past - with no chance of creatively carving out new, qualitatively better possibilities. 

     The timeless exhortations to "Know Thyself!" and "A Life Unexamined is Not Worth Living" point to the power of conditioning to enslave, BUT ALSO to the fact that there is A WAY OUT of an otherwise pre-programmed, robotic existence.
     Einstein said, "We cannot solve the problems of today at the level of thinking at which they were first created." Since our "normal" level of thinking is conditioned, it cannot solve the problem of conditioning. Contemplative practices such as mindfulness meditation are designed to free us from the prison of conditioning by cultivating a more evolved level of awareness that leads to wisdom.
     "Wisdom is a function of deep insight into, and mature understanding of, the central existential issues of life, together with practical skill in responding to these issues in ways that enhance the deep wellbeing of all those who the responses affect." 
       Walsh R. The varieties of wisdom: Contemplative, cross-cultural, and integral contributions. Research in Human Development 2011; 8(2): 109-127.

eaglevshawk   www.dpreview.com

#372 Direct Perception of the Flow of Experience

     “… healing occurs as we learn to move from the realm of concepts to the world of direct experience. Our mental concepts and ideas about things, about people, objects, or feelings, are static and unchanging. But the reality of experience is an ever-changing river. Direct perception drops beneath the names of things to show us their ephemeral, mysterious nature. When we bring our attention to the direct perception of experience, we become more alive and free.”               Jack Kornfield

#371 Life as Therapy & Therapist

     "Therapeutic alliance is the prototypical common factor shared by nearly all psychotherapies. It is currently understood as involving

          1) an agreement between therapist & patient on the goals of treatment, 

          2) the tasks needed to accomplish those goals, and 

          3) a sense of a personal bond between therapist & patient." 

       Schnur JB, Montgomery GH. A systematic review of therapeutic alliance, group cohesion, empathy, and goal consensus/collaboration in psychotherapeutic interventions in cancer: Uncommon factors? Clin Psychol Rev 2010; 30(2): 238-47. 

     Isn't each one of us learning to become whole, healed, mature, evolved, perhaps even wise? If so, we each need to develop a therapeutic alliance with our life in this world, to 

          1) come to an understanding about the meaning, goal or purpose of our life;
          2) form a reasonable plan to accomplish this; and finally
          3) learn to consciously, open-heartedly embrace the "full catastrophe" - all that life brings us.
 
     "Free Will"? - see: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.ca/2013/07/373-how-free-is-our-free-will.html  

bijan64   www.dpreview.com